Solid Sunday

A special trip out was made from my parents’ house, specifically to purchase baby rice cereal. (Apparently Heinz has bought the Pablum name, because this box of deliciousness affiliated itself with both.) I know I said avocado, but I guess I’m just more comfortable with tradition – almost everyone says to start with the rice cereal, so who am I to argue? And my parents’ house was the venue, because apparently Grandpa was really hoping to see the faces E would make. (And nobody else would mind seeing them either.)

Of course I had a pang, feeding him his first bites of “food” food. I always have pangs. It’s like when we had to put him in his car seat to take him home from the hospital – in all of his 39 or so hours of life up to then, it was the first time we had to fasten him into something instead of holding him. The black buckles and straps seemed so big and harsh against his tiny baby self. I also had a pang giving him a pacifier for the first time, when he was about four weeks old – giving him a plastic nipple when he’d only ever had mine, the real thing. Also when he ate breast milk from the bottle with Daddy for the first time – it was both wonderful and heart-tugging when he eventually accepted it. (I felt a surge of possessive satisfaction when he still preferred my breast after the bottle.)

We have good reasons for doing all these things… it’s just that parenthood is full of happy little sorrows. We sigh that he’s growing so fast, wishing we could hold onto that tiny newborn – but then, imagine how very sad it would be if he somehow didn’t grow! I guess love that’s seated so deep and blooms so beautifully can’t help but pain us sometimes.

Anyway, back to the eating solids…. E sat on Daddy’s lap, a cloth napkin arranged over his front, and I did the honours. As it turns out, he just rolled with it. Didn’t seem confused or surprised, nor particularly thrilled; just took the whole episode in stride. He did want to grab the cut-glass bowl or the spoon (a tiny silver one my mom used as a baby) – they’re shiny. I know we got some cereal into his mouth, and a couple times he actually seemed to understand what we were doing and take a bite. Flashbulbs were popping. (Scratch that – we don’t have actual flashbulbs anymore. You know what I mean.) And then he seemed to get tired of the process, so we didn’t push it.

0 thoughts on “Solid Sunday”

I’m so glad you blogged about this! It’s hard being here and all of you guys there and us missing all the wonderful “firsts” of the fantastic Mr. E. The way you write, however, makes it easy to visualize and feel almost like a part of the process! xox